


Someday Down the Road I Hope to be Your Romeo

by Cefhclwords



Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: 2020, AU, COVID19, Eric Dier's hands, Fluff, M/M, Office, Tradie Eric, meet cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:00:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28265064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cefhclwords/pseuds/Cefhclwords
Summary: It wasn’t even Dele’s fault, really, because it was his company that had decided to hire the hottest tradesmen alive to work on the office, and Shoulders wasn’t just nice eye candy, he had a beautiful warm laugh, he teased his co-workers with stupid jobs and sung under his breath while he worked.
Relationships: Dele Alli/Eric Dier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39
Collections: Deledier Fic Exchange 2020





	Someday Down the Road I Hope to be Your Romeo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bellelaide](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellelaide/gifts).



> Enjoy :) a bit of a twist on my given prompt: 
> 
> Tradie Eric and Businessman Dele, Eric comes to do some maintenance in Dele's office building, Dele can't stop looking at the size of his hands. 
> 
> I really hope you enjoy and please forgive the lack of knowledge on anything related to carpentry, tradies and the advertising industry. 
> 
> Happy Christmas Allana! I really hope you like it x
> 
> Sorry for spelling/grammatical errors, was only checked by myself

“Big man” 

Allana mouthed as she caught Dele’s eyes across the room from her desk to his own, her eyes glowed playfully as she winked with a flutter of her long lashes. 

Dele shook his head and dropped his gaze to his desk, cheeks flushed just so as he heard the now-familiar low chatter of the tradesmen working in the centre of the office space. 

* * * *

Ever since the small flood in their office building, thanks to a burst pipe from the floor above, tradesmen had become somewhat of a permanent fixture on their floor of the advertising agency. 

The burst pipe had been an utter mess, the surrounding ceiling of the pipe had collapsed in and ruined the carpeted flooring, basically destroying the centre of the open space of the office. The higher-ups had decided of course, that there was no reason to stop work and that with a movement of some desks, the repairs could happen while they worked. 

Dele had been put out by the idea, frustrated at the expectation of meeting usual work requirements in an office that now had half the functional space, a hole in the ground and the beautifully calming sounds of construction. They had received an email explaining it would take just a little over a week at most, but Dele had still felt his mood fall low, tangling around his feet when he turned up on the first day after Small Flood Disaster That Ruined the Carpet.

Dele tried to console himself that it would be over shortly, and really with everything that was going on with Coronavirus becoming a bigger fear, He should feel lucky. A couple of Dele’s had friends been furloughed already so he knew he shouldn’t be dragging his feet to work and be thankful he was still working. He was, thankful for his job, just exhausted and the idea of a continued distraction when work was already busy. 

The desks had been moved to sit in clusters around the edges of the large open space, some facing in and other outward, some looking out over the windows. He’d be placed in their productive assigned seating chart with Jasmine and Alex tucked around him. 

The pair had this whole ‘will they, won’t they but they kind of already are’ that was endlessly dramatic and annoying and Dele already knew he’d find himself trapped between the usual squabbles he was usually able to avoid from the other side of the office with stifled grimaces. 

Ultimately, the situation would be other short of uncomfortable and annoying, hard to work through, but Dele knew if he was able to persist and get his work done to his usual standard, it may be a chance to impress, where others may fall slack. The first day had seen a passive-aggressive fight that Dele was certain took place over email between Alex and Jasmine that had left Dele feeling their sharp stares shot over the top of his head all day. 

Not to mention, Dele had somehow landed prime position for the reparations, the laughter and conversation of the tradesmen cutting through his headphones as he worked. By the time Dele had gotten home that first evening, he was certain his head would simply implode if he heard one more sound outside his own existence. 

But then, then came tall blond and handsome, Big Man or as Dele referred to him simply, Shoulders. 

Shoulders had come on the second day of Small Flood Disaster That Ruined the Carpet, ambling in as Dele had settled down to his desk for the day with a small ache already quelling in the back of his head. He had been anticipating a long week of ignoring the clusterfuck of distractions, making up for work at home to make sure he completed his aspects of the team projects. He refused to let the headway he had made as a junior member of staff slip. 

That’s when he’d looked up, to a warm sounding voice to his left wrapped up in a lovely laugh, the sound handsome and full. Dele’s chest had given a small sudden pull, his fingers had found comfort on the corner of his planner where it was stacked neatly on top of his laptop that he had just placed down. 

His eyes came to settle on the tall, broad figure that blocked Dele’s immediate vision, The man’s back was to him, a tall figure slightly hunched over, fiddling with something out of Dele’s sight, the thin material of his work shirt perfectly thin enough to show the shift of muscle, the bulk of his body. 

His strapping frame tapered into a shaped waist, the navy blue cotton polyester blend work shirt pulled taught in a way that accentuated his strapping frame. Dele’s fingers fumbled on the edge of his planner, pinching and pulling at it as he averted his eyes for just a moment, trying to cut away his staring and maybe be at least ten per cent less creepy than he definitely was being.

He couldn’t help but almost immediately look back at the man in the centre of the room, a few feet from where Dele stood at his desk, especially with that gorgeous warm voice that rang out in laughter and joking words with his colleagues.

Dele had hated the sounds of the workmen around him, but something about this one made him want to tune out all other noises just to hear more of him, he was oddly taken by in a way that was sudden and consuming. 

There was just something about him.

After a moment Dele had snapped out of it, sat at his desk with flushed cheeks, eyes darting back to the man. His brain had all but short-circuited and he’d nearly slipped right off his office chair when Shoulders had turned round to reveal a classically handsome shaped face, strong jawline framed by neatly trimmed facial hair. A big crooked nose that suited the sharp cheeks and predominate brow bone, a deep wash of blue eyes and smile lines that framed them when his face was relaxed. 

Shoulders was something out of a dream and Dele’s stomach has tightened when they drifted down the man's figure to his hands, where they were working on opening a bucket lid. The pad of his large thumb was placed on the lip of the lid tugging up, his fingers spread out on the top of it, pressing down to better allow his thumb to pull up with the tension. 

Dele’s stomach tugged tight behind his belly button as he watched, his teeth digging into his bottom lip, sucking it into his mouth as he watched the way Shoulders' hands easily stretched over the lid, almost able to encompass it completely. 

The broad width of his palm, fingers outstretched, the predominant veins bulging with movement, had Dele’s mind wandering, uselessly shuffling his books and papers at his desk as he continued to steal little looks. The seal of the lid broke with a soft crack and the sound was enough to jolt Dele into looking back to his screen, suddenly aware of the possibility of being caught out, his cheeks wearing a red flush. 

“Daimo, bro can you pass me the… no, no, no not that one, don’t move that” Shoulders' voice raised, half frantic by the end of it and Dele heard a small clatter, forcing himself not to look up at it. Instead, he had allowed himself to quietly have a crisis about the soft unfamiliar and pretty lilt of his voice. 

After seeing Shoulders that first time, Dele had been like a schoolboy smitten with a crush. He was sure he was all but one step above drawing hearts with D + S (again the lack of name threw a bit of a spanner in the works but it hadn’t done any work to slow the embarrassing small infatuation he had.) 

It wasn’t even Dele’s fault, really, because it was his company that had decided to hire the hottest tradesmen alive to work on the office, and Shoulders wasn’t just nice eye candy, he had a beautiful warm laugh, he teased his co-workers with stupid jobs and sing under his breath while he worked. 

Yes he had these eye crinkles and his hands were so fucking big, and his biceps bulged with muscle, but it was also that he would sometimes talk softly to himself in what Dele thought was maybe Spanish or Portuguese. It was also the way he would always have a packed lunch to eat, heating up delicious smelling meals in the break room. 

Allana, his least favourite co-worker and maybe best friend in this office had clued into the crush quickly from her vantage point. Her desk sat on the opposite side of the room, facing Dele’s directly and that, combined with her love of office gossip and teasing Dele about his love life and life in general, had made her relentless about his crush. 

It was the fourth day of Shoulders being in the office, and the second day of Allana mouthing “big man” at him whenever she had the chance. 

The previous day, when one of the other tradesmen in the office had been working on patching a certain section of the room where one of the damaged beams had been replaced, he had turned his head to the left and said “big man, can you come hold me steady for this” with a wave of his hand down at the ladder. 

Dele had let out a small sigh when Shoulders had been the one to respond to the nickname. Of course, of course, he was ‘big man’ with the way he easily shadowed all the other workers in height and width, the way Dele had seen him have to actually bow his head under one of the shorter door frames to fit through.

He’d draw his gaze up to meet Allan who was already watching him with a small smirk, looking all parts evil with her hair in a slicked-back bun and a knowing smile on her lips, eyeliner winged out sharply. She’d placed her hands in front of her, a good amount of inches apart and mouthed big man with a nod and a wink before looking back to her computer. 

Dele had pressed his lips together tightly, huffed a breath from his nose and sat through the experience of the new mental image that nickname had given him with Allana’s assistance. 

He guessed if Shoulders had a big frame then all of him had to be big right? He’d strictly cut his brain off when it started to go down that path and he caught himself maybe trying to get a cheeky look, to well, elaborate on such suspicions. He decided he needed help to pull his head in and had gotten up and gone for lunch out of the office in a futile attempt to clear his mind of such thoughts. 

When he had returned to the office to see Eric without his jumper and now just in his short-sleeved work shirt he’d decided that cleary the universe had it out for him. He was simply destined to be tortured by hot tradie Shoulders for the rest of his existence, or well the next week at least. 

* * * *

The tempting bulge of Eric’s biceps that had been an afternoon of distraction was nothing but a distant memory as Dele prepared himself for another torture day of construction sounds and trying to not actively drool at Shoulders. Not to mention, he had to balance Allana’s teasing and try to finish his report and presentation on their new prospective client that he needed to send out by the end of day. 

There was also the whole slowly brewing panic of a global pandemic and whispers of lockdown orders.  
Yeah, he needed a tea Dele decided.

He’d already drunk one and a half coffees this morning and knew if he wanted any chance of a good sleep, another one was not a good idea. 

The man dropped his head into his hands, elbows resting on the top of his desk as he drew a long breath in through his nose. 

The sharp sounds of drilling wouldn’t start at least for another hour due to noise restrictions, and Dele held to that for his sanity, squeezed his eyes shut and gave himself a short pep talk in his head before he stood. 

Dele rolled his shoulders back and moved to hook his hand on the opposite shoulder. He pressed his finger into the soft bundle of the muscle of his shoulder that sat just below his neck, he squeezed the usual dull ache that rested there after a long week of work before he straightened up. 

Stood at full height, Dele reached down to tug at the bottom hem of his dark green cable knit jumper, adjusting it to fall right and sit properly with the waistline of his black slacks. As much as Dele hated wearing the formal style pants, and always looked forward to casual Friday’s, at least got to enjoy the fact he knew his arse looked good in them. 

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone as he began to walk toward the kitchen slash breakroom, thumbing open a notification from his sister, asking if his office had made any further statements regarding work. 

Molly’s offices had been ordered to close and she’d started working from the last week since then she’d been checking in with Dele frequently, nervous, just like everyone else was about what the right thing to do was. 

Dele sighed and typed out a few short reassurances to Molly, sending them before he opened Gmail, dragging down on the screen to refresh his inbox, checking for any further updates he may have missed. 

They had been getting daily Coronavirus updates every time something changed and the sheer amount of emails had been overwhelming, helpful yes, but also stressful. Every few hours it seemed as though the information changed, and all Dele knew at the moment was the word “unprecedented” was one he never wanted to see again. 

He sighed softly under his breath, scrolled through his inbox as he reached a hand up to push open the door into the break room. Eyes still on his phone, Dele blindly made his way to the lush kitchen that made up half of the breakroom. 

It was obscenely nice, all white marble and black accents, smooth and sleek and fitted out with any amenity that could ever be needed by any person wanting to make food or drink. He lifted his head when he realised the presence of someone else in the room, hearing the heavy sigh and the shuffle of feet. 

Dele’s head picked up and he sucked in a small shaky breath, seeing Shoulders stood in front of the kettle with a deep furrow in his brow. His hands were on his hips, somehow making his usually big frame even more imposing, making him take up more space in the room. Dele’s eyes shyly danced over his handsome face, stomach twisted at the proximity, never having been this close to him before. 

The crush he’d been not so quietly harbouring in the centre of his chest fluttered and bloomed, twisted and spread its wings hot through his lungs and sparked warmth and affection into his exhale. 

Shoulders had always been hot, obviously, but he was handsome too, his side profile was strong, soft lips and an electric grey-blue wash of eyes. Dele’s heart stuttering aimlessly in his chest and he was embarrassed for half a second at how taken he was. 

Dele cleared his throat gently, more to knock himself out of his moment, but it served to make Shoulders jump slightly, he turned quickly and caught eyes with Dele, his face bloomed from it’s frown to a soft expression of slight surprise. So quickly that Dele also missed it, Eric’s eyes seemed to dart over Dele’s form before they landed back to their original spot of met with his own. 

“You alright?” Dele seemed to breathe out without realising the words had slipped from his lips, surprised with himself. 

“Hey” Shoulders said, a smile stretching across his face that felt like a punch in Dele’s chest. 

Dele was a little breathless at the sight of his smile, words failed on his tongue and as the silence ticked on for a few seconds his heart gave a small lurch in embarrassment. 

“I -uh, sorry I just wanted to make a tea, it’s so cold today and I thought I’d just pop in to make a cuppa but erm” Shoulders flushed and his smile dimmed to a shy grin. 

“I won't lie, I got a bit confused by your kettle, also it’s very nice like and I um” he shrugged and gestured to himself with a wave of his large hand.

Dele looked over at him again as though he hadn’t spent the day stealing glances. The man was covered in paint and plaster, flaking off the sides of his hoodie and hands, the leg of his pants and even a lick of white paint along the line of the cream coloured skin of his neck. 

“Didn’t want to make a mess” He shrugged then and Dele smiled, tried to catch his grin by biting the inside of his cheek, fondness swelling in the base of his stomach. The world gentle giant flashed through his mind and he took a step toward the kettle, looking back to Shoulders with an encouraging grin. 

“Let me” he offered, turned and with his heart thumping around two beats faster than usual, he reached up to open the cupboard above the skin, reaching, pushed up slightly on his toes, to the back to grab his usual mug and a disposable cup for Shoulders. 

“Oh- you don’t have to, I didn’t mean to take you away from work or anything” Shoulders spoke, voice kind, genuine. 

Dele shrugged, went about turning on the kettle, avoided all the elaborate additions such as the stay warm function, the specific temperature gage (and the two buttons on the handle that he wasn't sure what they were for) and flicked the switch at the base of it to turn it on. 

“Sugar, milk?” He asked, grabbing two tea bags and dropping them into the mugs, turning to the side as Shoulders stepped slightly closer. 

“Oh, no black tea is great thank you” he replied and Dele nodded and grabbed a sugar cube from the neatly stacked container on the bench, dropped it in the mug as the water brewed. 

“Busy morning?” Shoulders asked, “You guys are always working hard when we get in” 

Dele leant his hip against the countertop, angled his body to face shoulders as they spoke fingers nervously fidgeting with the ring on his pointer finger. 

Shoulders stood a step away from the edge of the countertop, his hands relaxed by his side,

“Yeah, I have a lot of work piled up at the moment, so it's been full-on, but I’m getting through it” he explained

“You guys always look like you’re hard at work, I can imagine it's stressful working for a big agency like this, and I guess all the noise doesn’t help no?” Eric said with a laugh on his exhale, before he reached up to rub at the corner of his eye. 

Dele shrugged, bit at his bottom lip and hated the way his stomach flipped at the caring tone of the man's voice. 

“Oh, you mean the drilling sounds? Nah it's been alright, usually, I have to go to youtube and cue up a video of peaceful drilling noises to do my work to, but now I’m getting them for free so” Dele joked the question away, not wanting to vent about how stressed he was to the handsome stranger. 

Shoulders let out a small laugh and nodded his head, “Right, well then I guess a welcome is in order” he retorted, with a small raise of his brows. 

Dele shook his head slightly and let out a breathy laugh, “Mmm, don’t push your luck” he said softly, a smirk tucked in the corner of his mouth. 

Shoulders smiled back and Dele’s eyes dropped to the cup and mug in front of him. His fingers reached for the string of the teabag in his mug and fiddled with it between his fingers. He really did have a way of accidentally shutting conversations down he thought in annoyance with himself at Shoulders silence. 

“You must have been cold too” Shoulders spoke again after a few moments, Dele frowned slightly at the comment, a wrinkle of brow that Eric caught quickly. 

“I just mean, you know having to dress nice, you can’t bundle up as much as you’d like when it's miserable out there” he gestured to Dele’s slacks and shoes with a small wave of his hand. 

Dele flushed at the comment, confused as to whether it was a compliment or an insult or an odd tangle of both. 

“I mean, you look, it looks great I just mean you obviously have a dress code and-” Shoulders cut himself off, licked his lips and his hand reached to cup the back of his neck, rubbing over it. 

“One of the best parts of this gig is being able to dress as comfy as I want” Shoulders laughed softly, his hand dropped to the counter, a mirror of Dele’s a metre across from his own on the marble. 

His hand looked large on the bench where it was in a loosely curled fist, his fingers thick with predominate knuckles, neatly trimmed nails, lines of veins faintly visible over the back of his hand. Dele blinked slowly before he stole his gaze back to the kettle, the image of Eric’s loosely held fist pressed to the back of his eyelids. It was clear, a white light at the base of it illuminating the water inside, it was beginning to bubble slowly, steam clouding the inside in a soft fog. 

Dele nodded, mouth tilted into a small grin as he understood Shoulders comment as a compliment, maybe a jumbled one, but a compliment nonetheless. At the very least it wasn't an insult, and the fact that Shoulders had noticed his clothing and called it nice had him a little flustered. Maybe it was just the deeply desolate landscape that was his love life since his break up with Jesse a year and a half ago that had him finding the comment cute. 

God forbid someone actually flirt with him, he might actually pass out. 

“Yeah well, you need to be in comfy clothes with all the work and heavy lifting you do, you wouldn’t want to be restrained” Dele actually thought about knocking his head down against the countertop to escape his stupid reply and awkward tense feeling shaking in his chest. He was out of practice but god he’d just talked to Shoulders about being restrained. 

If Allana ever found out Dele was as good as dead and could expect to hear about it for the rest of his natural life. 

Shoulders just smile and nodded his head in a short movement, grinning in a way that had the corners of his eyes wrinkling with the force of it. 

“Yeah I uh, I kinda hate posh clothes, suits, anything fitted it's not really my thing you know? I like comfy and usually just black cause it all matches” he laughed softly and reached down to tug the oversized black hoodie that served as proof. 

The kettle began to bubble low and noisy, small bubbles of water rising to the surface to meet the large fat bubbles that burst and flow over each other as water slowly began to reach its boil. 

“You calling me a posh boy?” Dele asked, reached for his mug and curled his fingers around the handle loosely, his hands needed something to do, nervous energy high in his throat. 

“Maybe I am” Shoulders shrugged, a smirk on his lips as he gave a small shrug of his shoulders, both hands moving to rest in his pockets. 

“Huh, posh boy you say, well you clearly haven’t taken note of my outfits on casual Friday” Dele played right back, his right brow raising slightly as he twisted his upper body to face Shoulders better. He only half had the ability to keep eye contact while talking to him too, eyes darting to the surrounding kitchen and his hands. 

“Well, maybe I need to take better notice tomorrow then,” Shoulders said back, voice warm, almost teasing even? making Dele’s chest feel like he’d just thrown back a shot of old whisky, heat dripping down from his throat to his chest. 

Dele’s tongue touched the back of his teeth, a reply ready to fall out when the kettle hit its boiling point, the low rumble of water flowing up into a higher soft pitched call of steam. The kettle rumbled on the hilt, jittering as the switch at the bottom flipped off and the kettle let out a melodic, soft tone signalling it was done. 

Dele turned his attention to it, the right side of his body washed warm with the presence of Shoulders beside him, feeling his eyes on him. Dele lifted the kettle, poured Shoulders cup full before he filled his own, watched the sugar cube dissolve and ebb away under the hot water before it darkened from the tea leaves. 

He let the bags steep as he placed the kettle back on its base, then reached for a stirring stick, placed it into his cup and stirred slowly a few times to help the sugar spread through the liquid. He reached for a napkin and folded it, reached back up into the cupboard to pull down a cup sleeve for Shoulders take away cup. He picked it up and slipped it on, knowing a black tea would be too hot to hold in the thin paper cup without it. 

Dele grabbed another stirring stick and pulled the teabag out of Shoulders cup, placed it against the stick and wrapped the string around it to drain the bag from the rest of the tea into the cup. Dele did the same with his own before tossing the tea bags and stirring sticks into the bin. He reached for a lid and secured it over Shoulders disposable cup before picking it up, his own mug in his other hand. 

Dele’s heart gave a small thud at the sight of the attractive tradesman standing the smallest bit closer, eyes already on him. Dele flustered at the attention for a moment and stalled and in offering Eric his mug until Eric reached out his hand for it. 

With a small smile, Dele extended his reach to give Shoulders his cup, swallowed hard when his fingers brushed the edges of Dele’s as he took it into his hands. Dele’s hand seemed to tingle as he dropped it back to his side, eyes fluttering up to meet Shoulders who had a small smile. 

“Thank you, so much for doing that when you're busy, thank you for taking the time, I really appreciate it, thanks” Shoulders beamed as he cradled the cup in his hands, making the cup look small in his grip. 

“No big deal, it only took a moment and I was making mine anyway, so it’s alright, really” Dele replied, smile warming at his genuine appreciation for the small gesture.

“Still, thank you, I’m sure we’ve been a pain for you guys having us in the office so it’s very nice of you to go to the effort,” shoulders said, eyes locked on Dele. 

Dele flushed warm in his cheeks and shrugged, cast his eyes down, overwhelmed a little bit because Shoulders was painfully handsome and now Dele knew he was kind, soft and sweet inside. Not to mention the direct eye contact, which was a bit deeply overwhelming, because god who had eyes that blue. 

He tumbled over something to say in his mind, wet his bottom lip as he struggled to find a way to keep the conversation running, he wasn’t ready to walk away yet, not when he was actually finding a legitimate reason for his embarrassing crush. 

“I didn’t get your na-” 

The door of the break room opening, broke the silence wound up between them, the slick sound of the metal handle and the air rushing in, carrying with it the sound of the Dele’s co-workers, chatter and the patter of typing. 

“Big man, I need a hand” One of the other tradesmen stood at the door, a look of impatience pulled across his brow, greying brows furrowed deep. 

“Of course, coming” Shoulders replied and walked out of the break room with a tiny glance at Dele, a smile tucked into the corner of his mouth. 

The men left the room, the door swinging shut behind them with a soft sound, cutting the noise from the office space, swallowing Dele into the quiet room, mug warming in his palms.

A sigh rushed heavily from Deles lips and he quietly applauded himself for not actively acting like a blushing schoolboy. He spoke actual words to Shoulders, he carried a conversation and even teased him a little bit. All running on low sleep and an exhausting work week. He took a sip of his tea as a reward to himself for not blurting out he’d been having dreams about those hands to the man himself before he walked out of the break room, returning to his desk. 

Dele leant back into his seat as he sat down, shifted his mug into one hand and reached for his mouse, pulling up an advertisement reel for a company they were hoping to snag for their next big online campaign. Viewing their previous ads was always where Dele started, he liked to get a good understanding of how the brand had been shown to the public previously when looking into a prospective client for the management teams. 

Halfway through the video, the tea in his hands had cooled enough for him to take a sip. As the warm drink hit his tongue and rushed down his throat, warming him from the inside, his eyes distractedly darted from his screen, back to the centre of the room. 

It was easy for him to find Shoulders amongst the other tradies, his tall frame towered him above most. That and Dele was familiar with stealing glances for a site of him now. Dele watched for a quiet moment, the sound of yet another ad with the same cringy jingle as the last three looping through his headphones.

He watched Shoulders hand wrapped around the side of the ladder, head tilted up slightly to talk to the other worker using the ladder. His other hand was wrapped around the paper disposable cup, almost hidden from view in the width of the man's palm and the length of his fingers. 

Dele’s gaze dropped back to his own hand for a moment, the way his fingers wrapped around the mug, how his hands stretched slightly to hold it comfortably, how his slender palm left blocks of white porcelain untouched. 

Dele sighed softly and tightened his grip on the warm mug, lifted the cup to rest it against his bottom lip pulling a deep breath in through his nose as he let his eyes seek out Shoulders one last time, he told himself then he’d get settled in for the day and get some actual work done. 

Heat shivered in Dele’s chest, a nervous spark that made his breath catch slightly when he looked over to catch Shoulders eyes already on him, the deep sea blue visible even across the room.

Shoulders smirked, a small tug of his pretty mouth before his left eye closed in a quick wink, and he lifted the mug up, tilting it in a mock cheers towards Dele. He mouthed ‘thank you’ to him before he brought the cup to his lips, taking a sip. Dele’s shaky exhale ripped the tea in the mug held against his lips, smiled before he took a sip of his own, cheeks hot with a flush. 

As Dele packed up his bag for the evening, more than ready to head home (and have a hot shower and crawl into bed and ignore the stream of worried texts in his family chat about the semi disastrous state of the world) he picked up his mug from the morning to take back to the break room and put in the dishwasher. 

He smiled as he fit his fingers through the handle of the mug, thought of a blue-eyed wink and kind smile. His stomach twisted as he thought of his met glances throughout the day. He was used to his sneaking looks of Shoulders going unnoticed. Spotting the flash of skin just above his pants and below his jumper when he was stood on the ladder, reaching above him to work on the roof, the grip of his hands around tools had been replaced with blue eyes meeting his own almost every time and a cute grin that had Dele’s heart racing. 

Dele woke up determined the following morning, a nervous excitement low in his stomach, the interaction yesterday and the stolen glances secretly reassuring him. He couldn’t get shoulders out of his mind, even as he’d laid down to sleep last night, he wondered if the man was also getting into bed alone, or had someone beside him. Dele couldn’t help the way his attention had been caught, hooked into the handsome tradie with a kind smile and warm voice and big hands. 

He’d come to the resolution that he would make a move today, He’d put himself out of his pining misery one way or another. The work in the office was almost done, and all he knew was he couldn’t let Shoulders walk out of the door without saying something, anything, even if it meant awkward bitter rejection and a bottle of something strong to forget about it and his general existence afterwards. 

Dele muffled a yawn in the back of his hand as he sat up in bed, reached for his phone as he wondered what the best way to try and ask Shoulders out would be, if he should make him another cup of tea and put his number on the side, or just ask him to his face or slip him a note? 

The tired man frowned upon seeing the small flood of notifications that filled his screen, scrubbed over his eyes and clicked on his most recent text message, one from Allana that started in all capitals. It took Dele a few moments as he woke, scrolling back through the numerous messages he had from her starting at around half past five in the morning, but he realised that the office had closed its doors and they were officially working from home. 

Dele jumped to his email to see an official letter of notice from their CEO. It was long and jumbled and didn’t really say much in its numerous paragraphs besides that they had a day off today and that there would be further instruction and contact by the end of the work day. Dele swore under his breath and sat up in bed, beginning to reply to Allana to fire out what the hell had happened to suddenly have them not coming back into the office with no end date in sight. 

It wasn’t like Dele didn’t know things were getting worse, didn't see the rising cases and the terror in the news, didn’t see the supermarket shelves getting emptier and emptier, or hear about all the offices closing down, of his friends being laid off. There was something different though, in having work pulled out from under his feet, of having the one thing that still felt semi-normal tipped entirely upside down. 

After texting with Allana for a while, he found out that their agency’s sister company had a case in their HR department. It had struck enough fear into their CEO to have him make the decision, not to mention the rising pressure from the government and the continued talk of a lockdown. 

Dele tossed his phone to his bedside table and laid back onto his mattress with a loud huff, one hand sunk in his hair as he thought through what he’d need to do to get a good work from home set up going, a small shopping list in his mind. 

It wasn’t until he pulled himself out of bed to get into the shower, needing to do something other than lie there and worry even if it was standing under the spray of water and worry, that he realised the office closing meant he would never see Shoulders again. He had no way to contact the other man, beyond being creepy and trying to find out what the company they hired for the repairs calling them to try to find Shoulders himself. 

Dele sighed heavily and stripped off his shirt as he stepped into the bathroom, chastising himself for the pit of sadness that had bloomed fat in his throat. All of it was a sea of anxiety in the base of his stomach, but the thought of never getting to see the handsome tradie again was a simple sadness in the back of his mouth, in the centre of his chest. Like a little kid having a toy snatched away by someone else, or bringing takeaway home for dinner when you’re starving and opening the bag to realise have your order is missing. 

Stripped out of his clothing, as Dele turned on the water, he resolved to only allow himself to be sad over Shoulders for the duration of his shower, then he’d pushed it out of his mind and focus on what the next few months were going to look like. 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

Dele was almost totally convinced that Matthew McConaughey was going to come swanning through the front door of his flat any second now, that’s the only way he could reconcile what was currently happening to him; that it was some ghost of girlfriends past shit. 

Although upon immediate reflection, Dele was pretty sure Matthew McConaughey wasn’t the ghost in that movie, the girlfriends were, but, semantics. He shook his head and himself before he let out a small sigh from under his breath. He tilted his head to the left and barely peaked his eyes open, just quietly checking there wasn’t some spirit in the form of Matthew McConaughey or otherwise to try and tell him how this was a lesson about his life and future and past. 

He saw the space of his home no different to the way it has been previously, the same cream coloured walls and small but plush white couch, scattered light pouring in from the large windows that the desk he was sat at were facing. 

Dele pressed his lips together and let out a small exhale, cursed himself softly before he lifted his gaze and cast his eyes out his window once more, looked out to the scattered line of other high rise apartments that cluttered his view of the London afternoon skyline. 

Dele squinted just so against the warm light pouring in, pressed his top line of teeth into his bottom lip and pulled at the skin as his eyes caught the same figure that had sent him into the Matthew McConaughey Tailspin. 

A small smile ghosted across Dele’s lips, hesitated before it bloomed into a small grin. He curled his fingers into his fist from where they were spread on the side of his face and slid them to press the line of his knuckles against his lips.

Dele’s eyes drifted over the broad line the figure cut in the distance, stood on scaffolding in the usual tradie uniform, a too-bright shade of high visibility yellow standing out against the navy blue T-shirt that was worn underneath it. 

Even under the layers, Dele would see the wideness of his frame, the hint of muscle as he reached up overhead to adjust something. His stomach twisted tight and he swallowed thickly as familiar butterflied flooded through his ribs and up to his throat. 

He paused, drew in another slow breath and closed his eyes for a second, counted to three and blinked them back open in a flutter, expecting the figure to disappear like a mirage, let out a small breath of surprise when he was still stood there working away. Dele’s fingers fluttered against the desk aimlessly, unknown words held in his throat nervously. A voice startled him from his thoughts and his eyes snapped back to his laptop with a jolt, holy fuck, his meeting. 

Dele scrambled to sit back quickly, eyes darted frantically to the screen and he let out a sigh of relief to see that his camera was still off along with him being muted as per usual. He’d switched his camera off when he’d gone to get a cup of tea quickly, he was deeply thankful in that moment that he’d forgotten to turn it back on. 

Dele quickly sat up, adjusted his laptop before he clicked to turn the camera on, well aware that Agatha was one of the directors that counted no video on during zoom call as them not attending at all, and she was one to impress in his hopeful future there. 

With a deep breath Dele attempted to re-aim his focus, his stomach fluttered and he felt a heavy pull to look out his window, unable to help but dart his eyes up to the right to look out at the man on the scaffolding once more, the familiar figure he’d almost come to forget in the month since he’d last worked in the office. 

Throughout the rest of the zoom call, Dele tried to temper his excitement and thrill, the anxious pleasant churning in the pit of his stomach of opportunity, of a chance, of a maybe finally pulling through weeks later. It was like seeing a red bubble holding the number one when waiting for an important reply. 

By the time the virtual meeting came to an end, Dele was flipping a pen anxiously through his fingers, his leg was bouncing a hummingbird rhythm and his mind was jumping uselessly to romantic conclusions. He flipped the lid of his laptop shut and scrubbed a hand over his smile before he pulled out his phone. 

Allana had beat him to the punch, a text message already waiting on the screen 

Allana: ‘What on earth was going on with you? Did you eat the taffy that your weird neighbour gave you? I told you that was suspicious and to steer clear of it, are you feeling alright? Hallucinating? :/’

Dele: ‘I’m not joking here, you remember that hot tradie from our offices, ‘big man’ or whatever, I think he is working the building right across from mine… right now’

Allana: ‘OH MY GOD’

Allana: ‘Do I remember? Like u weren’t low key in love w/him ugh’

Allana: ‘Well you better COURT HIM!! You are being given a chance here!!’

Dele: ‘And how do I court him from a separate building do you suggest?’

Allana: ‘Obviously put on your sexiest number and lounge by the windows until he notices and comes banging down your door to have manly his ways with you :O’

Dele: “Thank god I came to you for advice on men!!!!!!! I’ll just order a corset off Amazon and get set up ta”

Dele huffed out a small laugh and dropped his phone to the desk, sat back in his chair and looked out the window once more, shook his head in disbelief when there Shoulders stood, a bit under hundred or so meters away. It looked as though his hair was longer now, no longer buzzed close to his head, but without a doubt it was him. 

With Allana’s text in mind, he looked down at his current state of dress an overside hoodie that slipped off his shoulder and came down to his thighs, soft sweat shorts and white socks. Not quite a sexy courting number. She hadn’t been wrong, about it being a chance. Dele never thought he’d see the man again, the world was in some form of lockdown and there he was, hand-delivered right at Dele’s doorstop. 

It was something impossible, something he’d consider fate if he maybe allowed himself to be hopeful, or if it wasn’t the kind of impossible to get Shoulders attention from his apartment. It was really just some kind of awful temptation at best. He tells himself its a coincidence, that he doesn’t live far from his office and Shoulders has probably been working in the area for years now. It was a stupid crush and one real conversation, the guy probably didn’t even remember him. 

Dele forced himself to focus on work, throwing himself into his busy schedule was busy after the initial fight to sway his attention to it. Somehow they were busier than ever, and Dele had work slowly piling up to his ears to sort through. By the time he stopped to get up and get some food, he looked out the window, Shoulders was nowhere to be seen, like he’d never been there at all.

As Dele sat down at his desk the next morning, yawning into his arm, a cup of tea in one hand he had half-convinced himself that seeing Shoulders had been a zoom boredom-induced delusion. 

He lifted the screen of his laptop and opened his inbox, cradled his cup of tea in both hands now with his eyes half open as he allowed his inbox to load. He rolled his head to the left, stretching his neck as he looked out his window, it was an upside of working from home, his desk facing a nice view rather than a wall or just a sea of other desks. 

Dele swore when he saw a man on the scaffolding, working on the floor below the one from yesterday. “Shoulders” Dele muttered with an annoyed huff, deciding that a ghost of Matthew McConaughey lecturing him about his lack of a love life would be less annoying than having the best looking man he’d ever met paraded in front of him like this. 

Three days later, Dele was truly on the brink of losing his mind. Every day stupid Shoulders in his stupid fitted t-shirts was on the stupid scaffolding working in a way that made his stupid muscles bulge, not far enough away from Dele that the couldn’t see the shine of sweat on his stupid skin. 

Dele was considering creating a formal investigation into how he accrued so much bad karma as to be tortured in his own home by the biggest ‘what if’ that he’d been ruminating on for months. It was Friday and Dele was not going into another week of this, he couldn’t do it (and yes, he could shut his blinds ok, but then his apartment would be dark and he kind of would miss glaring at the stupidly handsome man ruining his ability to get work done). 

Really he blames Shoulders, for what he finally decides to do because the man is sitting cross-legged on the scaffolding eating a sandwich. He looks so cute that Dele kind of can’t bear it and that stupid longing in his stomach won’t cut it out. Besides, the man is finally working on the level directly across from him, within eye line of Dele’s window, the closest he’d been so far. 

Dele decided it was now or never. He grabbed a plain sheet of A4 paper and a black marker, printing a neat message in his handwriting across it. 

“Want another cup of tea?”

It was simple and clear and all that would fit on the piece of paper. 

Dele looked down at it and shook his head with a small laugh, it was a weak attempt at best. The chances were slim that Shoulders would see the paper, read it, see Dele and understand it. 

Really, it was a complete and utter shot in the dark but Dele felt like the universe was shoving Shoulders in his face so he had to retaliate somehow even if it just showed the universe that this clearly wasn’t going to work out. 

Besides, he’d only left his house for groceries in the past month and could blame the embarrassing and half ridiculous idea of being deprived of human contact. 

Dele peeled the tape from a roll he found in the depths of one of the draws, breaking it with his teeth into four sections, using it to stick the sign to the top of his window, message facing out. 

With one last look at his hard work, Dele set his eyes determined on his laptop screen. If the universe really was trying to make something happen, the ball was in their court, he’d done all he could in the circumstance. 

After the first half an hour of paranoid excitement, looking up at the paper and maybe tiny glances out at the window, Dele all but forgot about the paper totally. The manager of their current campaign, David, had called him in a small meltdown, saying there had been errors in the proposal that Dele’s co-worker was responsible for (thank god) and needed Dele to go through the entire presentation package again and ensure the entire thing was cohesive, correct and alter any mistakes that had been made by his co-worker. 

Five hours later Dele had only gotten up to get a can of Coke from the fridge and a make a half-arsed snack of peanut butter toast and a bag of crisps, but the project was submitted and David had sent him an appreciative email. 

An appreciative email from David was about on the same level as someone else offering up their newborn, so despite his tired eyes and sleepiness, Dele was happy with himself.

The tired boy logged out for the day, shut his screen and leant back with a heavy sigh, scrubbed his hands up over his face and wondered what he could put together for dinner from the miserable collection of ingredients in his fridge. 

Dele pressed hard on his eyelids before he dropped his hands to his lap, counted to five before he blinked his eyes open, watching black and white and fizzes of colour burst in his vision from where he’d pressed in hard. 

It when the spots in the vision finally began to ebb away, that he saw the sheet of paper stuck to the top of the window and sat up with a startle. He drew in a small gasp as his heart fluttered into his throat with sudden excitement, he closed his laptop so he could peek out the window, eyes racing over the scaffolding.

Cold disappointment sunk like a stone low in his stomach when he realised Shoulders was gone, and the time had passed without any interruption or notice that the man had noticed the sign or understood it. Or, Dele supposed, he may have seen the sign and tried to get Dele’s attention from the other building and Dele had missed it due to his focus on his work. 

“Fuck you universe” Dele mumbled, pushed up out of his chair and tugged the hood of his hoodie half up over the back of his head, and heard a heavy knock at the door. 

Dele frowned and tugged the sleeves of his jumper down over his hands, fiddled with the fabric in his palms as he walked towards his front door, a small hope bubbled in his stomach as he reached for the door handle, pulled it open with a step back. 

“Oh” Dele breathed, eyes widening as he saw Shoulders stood there at his doorstep, well a good four steps back from it actually, semi out of breath with a boyish grin across his handsome face. 

“Hi” Shoulders said, voice warm and sweet and every bit what Dele remembered. 

“Hi” Dele breathed back, in disbelief 

“I uh, I’m really glad it’s you, I maybe might have annoyed off a couple of your neighbours I think? I kinda got the wrong door twice cause I didn’t count the floors right I dont think, it was a bit hard to tell, with the windows but um” Shoulders trailed off, his hand on the back of his neck, squeezing. 

“I really didn’t think that would- work, I um wow hi” Dele repeated, in total disbelief. 

“I um, I’d invite you in but” he waved his hand between them and Dele nodded quickly. 

“No, I um, I didn’t even think about that really- I, sorry” Dele rambled, heart still pounding with anxious adrenalin. 

“No, no its ok, I just, I was thinking, I mean um, even your name would be nice, So I could stop calling you ‘cute office boy’ in my head,” Shoulders said

Dele’s heart somersaulted, and his stomach filled with nervous flutters as his chest and cheeks warmed in a heavy flush. 

“Cute office boy?” Dele asked, wriggling his toes against the floor of the apartment, suddenly very aware of the lazy kind of messy outfit he was in. 

“It was ‘very cute office boy’ but it got a bit too long in my head so” 

“Ah” Dele nodded, “makes sense” 

“It’s Dele by the way” he added, fingers fidgeting with his sleeves in nervous excitement. 

Shoulders beamed them with a nod “Dele” he repeated, rocked up on his toes slightly and swung his hands in front of him.

Dele’s smile grew, his cheeks hurting with the force of it at the sound of his name in the man’s mouth. 

“And you? While we are doing names…” Dele trailed off

“Eric, M’Eric, sorry it feels weird that I can’t like I don’t know” Eric gestured to the space between them and Dele laughed softly. 

“Yeah no um, I know its a bit strange, but, wow- I didn’t even think that you’d see it, even come here I didn’t really think it through but” Dele shrugged, let out another small laugh of disbelief. 

“I thought maybe- god sorry if I sound creepy but I thought I maybe saw you the other day, your windows are so big and yeah, I thought maybe but then I thought no way, but I saw the sign and it had to be, or well, I hoped” Eric rambled, voice excited. 

Dele seriously expected Matthew McConaughey to appear out of thin air before him because really this only happened in movies right? 

“I’m really glad you saw it,” Dele said, voice soft and honest 

Eric nodded “me too, I, I wanted to ask you out since I saw you in that office the first day if I’m honest, I- Would you like to get dinner with me sometime? I guess maybe after everything,” he asked 

Dele nodded, “Maybe, until then you can facetime me when you get home and we can have that cup of tea?”  
he suggested and bit the inside of his cheek, nervous the idea was ridiculous and lame but god Dele had been waiting to talk to Eric and get to know him for what felt like forever. 

The idea of waiting for longer, for the lockdown to ease, whenever that may be, seemed too far away. 

“Yeah, yeah I’d love that” Eric agreed enthusiastically and pulled out his phone. 

They exchanged numbers and then goodbyes, Dele shut the door with his cheeks hurting from his smile. 

He pressed his forehead to the back of the door and let out a small laugh, pressed a hand over his mouth and shook his head, joy sparking so wide and bright through him. 

Allana would just lose it when he told her. 

As Dele debated with himself if he should call her to hear her reaction properly, He realised kind of hoped his life was turning into a cheesy McConaughey worthy romcom, because he wouldn’t mind a happy ending with Eric.


End file.
